Aw, shucks: Palm Bay patrolman Kyle Schuck named 2018 Brevard County Officer of the Year

Aw, shucks: Palm Bay patrolman Kyle Schuck was named the 2018 Brevard County Officer of the year. Schuck also was Palm Bay's Officer of the Year. Video posted March 28, 2018, by Lamaur Stancil, FLORIDA TODAY.

Officer Schuck also was named 2018 Palm Bay Officer of the Year.

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Palm Bay Police Officer of the Year Kyle Schuck, with his wife, Lindsay Schuck, was named Brevard County Officer of the Year at the Melbourne Hilton Wednesday.(Photo: LAMAUR STANCIL/FLORIDA TODAY)Buy Photo

MELBOURNE — A Palm Bay police officer intent on catching criminals and helping the public was named the Brevard County Officer of the Year on Wednesday night.

"I believe the diversity of his work is what put him on top," Palm Bay Police Chief James Rogers said about Officer Kyle Schuck's win. "He was out there solving crimes, but he also had the sensitivity to know that the criminals aren't the only ones that need our attention."

Schuck, who was also Palm Bay's Officer of the Year, was one of 12 nominees for the county award, which is given out by the Brevard County Association of Chiefs of Police.

"He goes beyond the expectations of what most citizens would expect a police officer to do," Schuck's agency said when explaining why he was named its officer of the year.

Schuck made 100 arrests throughout 2017 and had a keen interest in investigating illegal drug sales, police said. He joined the force in 2014 when he began working on the midnight shift, police said. He has also joined the SWAT team and cultivated several confidential informants, police said.

In a Jan. 11, 2017, arson fire, two people — 61-year-old Daisy Tapia and her son, Erik Montes, 32 — died from their injuries.

Tapia's estranged husband, Edgard Fuentes, 65, was charged with two counts of murder. Brevard County Jail officials said Fuentes committed suicide there in January.

Schuck showed up at the scene of the arson, and he eventually helped organize a fundraiser for the survivors of the arson, Montes' wife and 10-year-old daughter.

He also led a fundraising effort to pay for a few nights at a hotel for a family which he discovered was living in their car last year, police said.

Other nominees included Brevard County Sheriff's Deputy Taner Primmer, who rescued two people from a personal watercraft who fell off and were in the path of a cruise ship just off Port Canaveral's Jetty Park.

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Palm Bay Police Officer Kyle Schuck was named Officer of the Year
Lamaur Stancil, 2/21/2018

Another nominee, Melbourne Police Department's Officer David Helms, tracked down a suspect who had fired several gunshots into a powerless, occupied home in the days after Hurricane Irma.

Wednesday's event also acknowledged awards given to Brevard County Corrections Deputy Carissa LaRoche, who was named the state's Corrections Officer of the Year, and Assistant State Attorney Kathy Speicher, who was named the State Attorney’s Office Trial Attorney of the Year.

Last year, Indian Harbour Beach Police Detective Cpl. Lisa German won the county Officer of the Year honor.

Each law enforcement agency in Brevard County can submit its officer of the year into the county's Officer of the Year program. This year, Melbourne Beach and Melbourne Village did not submit nominees.

Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Taner Primmer

Cocoa Police Detective Debra Titkanich

Cocoa Beach Police Detective Joseph Versaggi

Indialantic Police Officer Ryan Dovel

Indian Harbour Beach Police Officer Ivan Swenson

Melbourne Police Officer David Helms

Orlando-Melbourne International Airport Police Officer Michael Burks

Palm Bay Police Officer Kyle Schuck

Rockledge Police Investigator Robert Weigel

Satellite Beach Police Officer Anthony Holland

Titusville Police Officer Tyler Glenn

West Melbourne Police Detective Donovan Brickhouse

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Brevard County Deputy Carissa LaRoche has been named Brevard County 2018 Corrections Officer of the Year. Video by Malcolm Denemark